Choosing One Group/Artist to Follow?

Do you or have you ever been obsessed with just one band, the stereotypical gya attitude of following and essentially worshipping one band or artist as your spiritual deity? I’ve done this a few times throughout my life with DIR EN GREY, the GazettE and MIYAVI for varying periods, usually not more than a year. These days I struggle listening to just ten bands a month, it’s to the point where I’m always switching artists in and out monthly if not weekly or even daily. I must admit there’s a romanticism aspect about following just one band and having them as your pseudo family or something just as crazy like friends you’ve never met that you just know you’d click with.

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I’ve never experienced anything as extreme as that :sweat_smile: but usually if I find a band with music I really enjoy I’ll pretty much exclusively listen to them for a few weeks/months/a year depending on the size of their discography. The main bands I did that with were lynch., the GazettE, Diaura, DADAROMA, MEJIBRAY, kiryu, xaaxaa, DEZERT, Hitchcock (i mean, they have like 9 songs but boy did i replay the shit out of them), Femme Fatale + Kaya, Jigsaw, THE ORAL CIGARETTES (not vk but yeah i was obsessed with them for a year and a half).

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I couldn’t do that, just go all in on one artist… I know it is sometimes a kind of norm/trend in Japan with the fans, but seems rather exhausting and limiting to me. Of course there are those few (handful of) bands that I will always check up on, no matter what, but even with my big favorites I’m not much of a ‘stan’ usually, so to speak.

Sometimes I do envy those people who can be so passionate about one band (within reasonable limits, lol).

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Hmm, I never actually got obsessed in any extreme way but MEJIBRAY was my biggest obsession.
The first band I closely own 2/3 of their full discography probably and spend the most money on lol.

But there are way more other bands that I like as well, so it’s hard for me to just stick to one band or artist. 2nd obsession would be Diaura since I do own some of their discography too and then it’s probably i.D.A & Neth Priere Cain xD

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I’m the same with the gazette and plastic tree right now but not that extreme. I think I’ve already listened to 3/4 of the gazette’s discography because of my obsessions with them, because this thing happens very often (¯▿¯;).
I can listen to them for a week without getting bored, and then I’m always looking for a new band or listening to old songs of bands I already know (most of the times is the second.)
About a year ago I was like that with Ayabie. Most of the times it’s a band with a big discography.

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The only band I was “obsessed” with was Korn when I was a teenager. They were my first metal band and I was listening almost exclusively to them for about 4-5 years. But I don’t really care about the band affairs of the bands I listen too. For me it’s a success when I can remember names of the band members.

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Let me enlighten ya all first on something called hyperfixation

And now let me tell you, i do often have hyperfixations on bands or artists
(those of you that read or are active on discord i think are pretty much aware of it)
When i have a hyperfixation on a band or an artist i will search up as much material and knowledge and whatever about them, as i can. But sure when i cant find any new info anymore i get bored.
Now i usually dont move on completly, its not like i suddenly dont care about any of them at all. I still follow up, but more on a normal fan level.

Especially for VK, it attracts and is partially targeted towards people with mental health issues, so i wouldnt be surprised if i see people with hyperfixations.
I also did notice a lot of friends from outside JRO, they will have like their 2 or 3 bands they follow up more close than others.
Another note on following only one or two groups could also be, if you concentrate on one and spam them with comments, fanart, blablabla, there is a higher chance for the band to notice you. And sure there are and will always be those fangirls that would love to … do whatever with their favorite bandmember.

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For me this never happened before, I always had my one favourite band but would also focus alot on other bands aswell. However, since covid started I fell into a deep hole and lost interest in everything except for one band. :woman_shrugging:

I probably did that with Dir en grey in the beginning, I’m sure. At least I recall worshipping the ground Kyo walked on, lmao
I’ve always had like, a main favourite and then a handfull of smaller favourites. I don’t have enough money or energy to focus on a TON of bands, but I do still generally try out other bands too. Don’t think I’ve ever been completely closed off to only one band. I’d say it’s usually 1 main, 3-4 others that I focus on ^^

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I hyperfixate for sure. Mostly I just listen to Dir en grey, Malice Mizer, and a few other lesser-known VK bands. Whether I’m autistic or not, I neither know nor care (signs point to yes).

Although I’ve tried listening to other VK bands, many of them seem to be DEG copypastes, which turns me off immediately. I’m aware that DEG themselves aren’t exactly entirely unique. The genre on the whole is generally lacking creativity and quite incestuous (apologies if this is controversial).

The other thing is money. I’m not exactly rich. VK collecting is an expensive hobby even if one only sticks to a few select bands. The price of JP CDs, shipping, customs charges, etc piles up fast (Brexit doesn’t help). So, I’m happy to continue listening to the music I enjoy and to ignore the rest for the most part.

For me that were Gazette and FeaDior, I’d say. Even though I wouldn’t go as far as calling that worshipping or deity.

I’ve been knowing Gazette since mid 2006, following them for a good two years closely until I just listened to new releases and didn’t care about anything else due to the fandom until 2013. Since then I’m basically on board with what’s happening, still staying away from the fandom itself and not collecting every tiny piece of media that’s around somewhere.
However it’s my most favorite band and that didn’t change in over ten years so I guess putting them here is very fitting. I can’t not be listening to them for long, if at all, there’s usually always some songs by them in my playlists. The month before seeing them live (for me 2013, 2016 and 2019) I’ve only been listening to them/everything they released until then and I didn’t get bored.

Got to know about FeaDior in 2007 and it’s a bit similar to Gazette except for them not being active most of that time. However I still do listen to them a lot, their songs are almost always in my playlist (and if not there’s usually some theme related reason why I didn’t put them in there) and even though they only released 9 songs altogether I also never got bored with their music. I kept track with what they were/are doing as much as possible. There’s still lots of stuff I don’t know from back then because I barely understood anything Japanese and there barely had been any translations online (there’s been an LJ community but it’s not that much aside from officially announced stuff).